Monaco Modernizes Public Parking Infrastructure From Leased Line to Ethernet

The Monaco Public Parking Service (PPS), part of the Monaco Ministry for Transport, is responsible for the management of all public parking facilities.

From 15 parking facilities in 1992, they have grown to about 40 parking facilities today, each with 30 to 400 spaces. With 30,000 daily users, it is strategically important that these parking facilities work properly with subscriptions, debit cards and tickets. Their operation was computerized in the early 1990’s. At that time a server was dedicated for management and seven DEC Alpha servers controlled the parking gates through a set of terminal servers and leased lines to the remote parking facilities.

Eventually, the PPS decided to switch its architecture over to Intel servers running Linux. From seven servers they switched to four, with a clear increase of power. At the same time they modernized their network by replacing serial links with Ethernet to the parking facilities. The DECnet network protocol was replaced by TCP/IP. “This architecture allows us to establish all kinds of Ethernet-based services in our parking facilities (video security, intranet facilities, etc.),” said Sebastian Cottalorda, head of the information systems department of PPS.

Since the existing terminal servers (used to access the parking gates) were not multi-protocol they could not be reused in the new network architecture. There was no possibility of replacing the parking gates because the cost of a new installation was to high. This meant the PPS needed to investigate a replacement for the terminal servers which could be easily integrated into its new network.

A Transparent and Economical Migration

PPS decided to use Perle IOLAN DS1 Terminal Servers that satisfied the following expectations:

• Single-port: these products are extremely compact and easy to use
• The rugged metal case is well-suited for use in the field
• The Perle IOLAN DS1 integrated transparently, giving the central computer COM port communication access with parking gate control
• The attractive price made the final decision to replace existing hardware easy

“Thanks to the IOLAN DS1, we are able to continue to use all of our parking gates with confidence, after modernizing our entire network architecture. This was a much more economical solution than replacing any of the gates,” said Sebastian Cottalorda.